resorting to religious dissimulation, taqiyah, when necessary.

d) Shira', sacrifice of one's life, is a voluntary duty for a group of forty, and more than forty persons, when they imposed it on themselves.

These principles became the recognised policy (Sirah) of the Muslims, which should not be changed. Ibadhi authorities supported these principles with the analogy of the Sirah of the Prophet throughout his struggle to establish the Islamic community and the Islamic State according to the command of God.71 They also claimed that these principles were not violated until the revolt of Nafii' b. al-'Azraq who took action contrary to them. Or, as Ibn Ibadh himself put it, "...But in the Name of God we dissociate ourselves from Ibn al-'Azraq and his followers, when they revolted, it seemed to us that they were on the path of Islam, but they deserted Islam afterwards and became infidels".72

The move of Ibn al-'Azraq was the first serious split in the Muhakkimah party. The doctrines introduced by Nafii b. al-Azraq created different reactions to them by the leading members of the Muhakkimah party.73 Both Jabir b. Zaid and 'Abdullah b. Ibadh opposed the views of Nafii' and defended and propagated the old principles of the Muhakkimah.

This account of the development of the Muhakkimah party shows that the leaders of the Ibadhi school did not introduce any new doctrines into the question of khuruj, coming out, or the relation between their members and the rest of the Muslims in terms of peace and war. All they did was to continue propagating the doctrines laid down before, either during the wars between 'Ali and Talhah, or by Abu Bilal afterwards. On the other hand, they rejected the views of Nafii' b. al-'Azraq and other extreme Khariji leaders such as Najdah and Dawud, for breaking those rules laid down by their predecessors. The Ibadhi attitude in this respect was expressed by the following words of Salim b. Dhakwan:

"Our attitude follows that of the Imams of the Muslims before they were persecuted; the day they killed 'Uthman; the day of the Camel; and the day they rejected human arbitration in their religion. Our opinion today agrees with their opinion then. Our interpretation of the Qur'an today agrees with their interpretation then. We have nothing to do with those who claim that today they have gained better knowledge of Qur'an and Sunnah and achieved supremacy over them."74 That was how the Ibadhis understood their rule which was to them no more than the continuation of the rule of the Muhakkimah before the split of Nafii' and the extreme Kharijis. They therefore regarded the extreme Kharijis as the mariqah, those who pass out beyond religion, and they applied to them the description of a certain group mentioned in a famous Tradition of the Prophet75 which says, "from the descendants of this man there will arise people who fluently read the